Entering the system without experience, training, or good health will get you neither sympathy nor help.

Charles Powell’s book is a compilation of his years of experience as an attorney concentrating in Vermont Workers’ Compensation law—working for the injured and disabled.

His goal is to educate injured and disabled workers so that they can get the help they need and avoid making serious mistakes.

This guide answers questions about whether your injury is covered under the Workers’ Compensation Act, how pre-existing conditions might affect your case, how long you might receive weekly wage and medical benefits and more.

Powell says that his hope is that his book will open your eyes to the people in the system and help you to understand where their loyalties lie, for whom they work, and the results that they are expected to deliver for the persons who pay them.

I hope this book helps you to understand how the system works and, for a time, how to live and work within the system.